Hoewel de showrunners David Benioff en Dan Weiss vaker hebben laten weten dat ze maar 7 seizoenen willen maken van de hitserie, verteld HBO programming president Michael Lombardo de serie minimaal 8 seizoenen zal krijgen. Lombardo: “Seven-seasons-and-out has never been the [internal] conversation. The question is: How much beyond seven are we going to do? Obviously we’re shooting six now, hopefully discussing seven. [Showrunners David Benioff and Dan Weiss are] feel like there’s two more years after six. I would always love for them to change their minds, but that’s what we’re looking at right now.”

Lombardo sprak ook over een mogelijke prequel serie: “I would be open to anything that Dan and David wanted to do—about Game of Thrones, or any subject matter. It really would depend fully on what they wanted to do. I think you’re right, there’s enormous storytelling to be mined in a prequel, if George and Dan and David decide they want to tackle that. At this point, all the focus is on the next few years of the show. We haven’t had any conversations about that at this point.”

Lombardo verdedigde tevens Game of Thrones tegen de kritiek die het vijfde seizoen heeft gekregen: “In the pilot episode we see a 7-year-old boy pushed to seemingly his death from a tower. This show has had violence from the first episode. I can’t speak to any single person’s particular taste, but I think the show is phenomenal. It went to 20 million viewers this year, it went up over 1 million viewers from the prior season. The show continues to grow dramatically. There are no two showrunners who are more careful about now overstepping what they think the line is—and everybody has their own line. [What they show] is critical to the storytelling.”